On smartphones, personal computers or tablets, Graphical User Interfaces (GUI) represent the predominant mode of access to software applications. For example, a user can launch an application (“app”) by selecting an icon on a touch screen and further interact with said application, for example by selecting or inputting data.
Voice commands are generally limited to specific contexts. For example, voice dictation software is mostly used in the context of a standalone software application (for example Word processing software). According to some accessibility features increasingly provided with modern operating systems, users can use voice commands to perform certain actions (for example launching an application, copy and paste, etc). These predefined actions are rather limited.
Such visual or audio interaction modes are generally passive (e.g. users are actively giving orders and the machine executes the orders). Even with recent computer interaction models, such as those implemented in answering systems for example, limited interactions occur from the machine to the user. Except a few core and predefined software applications like “Web Search” or “Calendar”, answering systems (e.g. conversational agents) cannot launch a particular game software application.
In the context of a companion humanoid robot, the interaction model with human users significantly changes when compared with the interaction model with personal computers (and their different forms). The cognitive interaction with a robot is thus fundamentally different than the one with a tablet PC or a smartphone. For example and in particular, robots often lack graphical output means (e.g. companion robot may not embed a screen). This basic fact implies many consequences, in particular to appropriately discover, select and execute one or more software applications.
As robots may represent some day a platform of access to software applications,—if not someday the predominant one for many households—, and/or that computing may become so pervasive as to lower the display requirement up to zero, there is a need for methods and systems of handling software applications on devices with limited or without graphical user interface means, in particular in the specific context of a robot.